VLAN With ZyXEL GS1900 & Cisco ASA5505

[grhopper]

My wife works from home and her company gave her a Cisco ASA5505 to VPN to her office network. I currently have my internet coming in to an unmanaged switch, then connect an Asus wireless router (for home use) and the Cisco switch to the unmanaged switch. This keeps the 2 networks separate. The only issue is that we have a network printer that is connected to the Asus home use side. When my wife needs to print something, she needs to disconnect from the Cisco and connect to the Asus.

I recently purchased a ZyXEL GS1900 to power an Edimax CAP1200 AP. Would this allow me to change up my setup and use a VLAN to keep the home and work networks separate? I've never set up a VLAN, so I would need the VLAN for dummies treatment. Thanks for any help/suggestions.

 

[netwrks]

I`m betting the Cisco is in your wife`s, work, address space, which isn`t going to help you one bit.. The best thing to do, is put a USB connected printer on your wife`s laptop.

 

[grhopper]

I`m betting the Cisco is in your wife`s, work, address space, which isn`t going to help you one bit.. The best thing to do, is put a USB connected printer on your wife`s laptop.

I'm not sure what you mean by address space. Are you referring to IP address range? If the printer has an IP address of 192.168.0.124, and the Cisco is assigning on a 192.168.1.x range, then they won't see each other, correct?

 

[netwrks]

I'm assuming your wife's laptop directly connect to her work supplied Cisco?

 

[grhopper]

Yes, it is connected through the ethernet port. Another thing I was thinking, was that if I set up a VLAN, then she could connect wirelessly to the Edimax AP with an SSID set to VLAN2.

 

[netwrks]

Yes, it is connected through the ethernet port. Another thing I was thinking, was that if I set up a VLAN, then she could connect wirelessly to the Edimax AP with an SSID set to VLAN2.

The two network should already be seperated, as they are already two didfferent networks.. I'm sure you can't ping her laptop from your home network.
You could try connecting wirelessly to your home network first. Then a VPN connection to her work network. (or the other way around) But pure routing between both networks, that would be no. Worst case, as I said, just get a USB capable printer, for her laptop. Double check to see if her work is didn't doing anything on the USB ports to restrict connection.

 

[coxhaus]

What were the instructions from your wife's work? They know they have to blend with an existing home network. You might talk to her work and request printer support. Tell them you only have one network printer. They might meet you have way since she needs to print for her work.

 

[grhopper]

They didn't give a lot of support. They pretty must said that she would need a dedicated printer connected to her computer. She's been making it work by bringing the laptop in another room and connecting the printer's USB to the laptop. I was just wondering if, after adding the managed switch, there was a better way to wire things.

 

[coxhaus]

Maybe you could move your network to the same network IP address space. Does the ASA5505 look for a specific IP address or does it do DHCP?

 

[grhopper]

I'm not sure. I haven't gone into that much detail on mapping it. My guess is that it is configured to VPN into the corporate office and have IP addresses assigned through the VPN. I wouldn't be opposed to re-addressing my home network.

 

[coxhaus]

I am asking about the laptop. How does the laptop get it's IP address?

Run ipconfig /all from cmd line on the laptop. It will tell you.

Oh. What is the IP address and mask? The default gateway should be the ASA5505.

 

[grhopper]

The laptop is set to "Obtain an IP address automatically." I don't know if the Cisco box is assigning the IP, or if a device at corporate is assigning the IP.

 

[coxhaus]

Does the IP address change or is always the same IP address. What I am looking for is whether you can add a DHCP server to the same network. If you can't add a DHCP server to the same network you will need to manually configure all IP addresses. This is not fun. A test you can try is to assign the printer an IP address to the same network as the laptop plugged into the same switch. I think the laptop will find the printer by a layer 2 broadcast and not need the default gateway of ASA5505 to find the printer. If this works then you should be able to setup the router on the same network and make all the other devices use the router as the default gateway for internet access. DHCP is still in question.

 

[coxhaus]

The more I think about this have you tried being connected to the VPN and connected to your wireless network at the same time with the printer defined as your default printer?

 

[netwrks]

The more I think about this have you tried being connected to the VPN and connected to your wireless network at the same time with the printer defined as your default printer?

I suggested that in post 6..